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A Bibliography of Boredom

This afternoon I reread the passage in The Magic Mountain in which Thomas Mann expounds on the nature of boredom. Lars Svendsen in A Philosophy of Boredom asks, “What is the difference between profound boredom and depression?” concluding that there is considerable overlap.

Thinking about how various thinkers have dealt with boredom led me to scribbling a bibliography for a study on the subject, which I thought I’d share here. All of these works deal to a greater or lesser extent with the concept of boredom:

I realise there is an extensive literature of the phenomenon of boredom, many of which I have not included. I came cross Lee Rourke’s top 10 books about boredom. Please feel free to add any titles in the comments section.

I was glad to see the Pessoa in the linked list. For me, The Book of Disquiet is one of the best books ever written. However, the Pessoa is more about depression and the state of BEING BORING as opposed to boredom. In fact, when you read the Pessoa, there is a realization that it may be impossible to be bored if you are paying attention.

Another of those titles I keep picking up in bookshops, scanning and then putting down again. I tend to think, quite wrongly I am sure, that Adam Phillips is to psychology what de Botton is to philosophy.

That could be, but I don’t know anything about de Botton (aside from the titles of his books). As for Phillips, portions of the, um, Russian edition of On Kissing, Tickling, and Being Bored that I’ve skimmed seem reasonable. But mainly I remember that when this book appeared in the early ’90s, many old-school, straight-ahead psychologists were delighted to encounter even one public pushback against the ultimately victorious hard-marketing campaign to declare psychoanalysis a science and help make zillionaires out of the pharmaceutical and insurance companies.

Nevertheless, practically no one who lives in an electrified society is able to experience actual boredom any more, so even writings as recent as 15 years ago are obsolete. Boredom has been eradicated by the social psychosis of 24/7 input: people even sleep with their TVs on and their smartphones next to them! A mere 15 minutes without at least two forms of external noise (magazine, TV, music, video, book, Internet, conversation) triggers cascading anxiety attacks and severe withdrawal symptoms. Very few people can go long enough without distraction to become bored now. Alienation, indeed.